diff --git a/Doc/reference/datamodel.rst b/Doc/reference/datamodel.rst
index da38bba91b6b93..083d38cc9f1604 100644
--- a/Doc/reference/datamodel.rst
+++ b/Doc/reference/datamodel.rst
@@ -2163,7 +2163,7 @@ Emulating callable objects
    .. index:: pair: call; instance
 
    Called when the instance is "called" as a function; if this method is defined,
-   ``x(arg1, arg2, ...)`` is a shorthand for ``x.__call__(arg1, arg2, ...)``.
+   ``x(arg1, arg2, ...)`` roughly translates to ``type(x).__call__(x, arg1, ...)``.
 
 
 .. _sequence-types: